Ariadne, facing Greta, was recalling a point in the past.
“Oh my, your fiancée is here.”
The shepherd boy, or rather the young man, outside the castle was an innocent man.
No matter what he appeared to others, he treated her with respect when they were alone together.
“You’ve made a big decision.”
“No. It’s the same for both of us.”
In her previous life, Count Cesare needed a messenger who could freely travel in and out of the Castel San Carlo without being detected in order to prepare a coup.
His men were closely watched by Crown Prince Alfonso's men.
In the end, the one he chose was his fiancée.
Ariadne went out the city gate every evening, pretending to have an affair with a shepherd outside the castle.
She pretended to be cautious, put on a thick robe, and went out while looking around, but in fact, she was carrying around things that anyone would want to give to their lover, showing off her 'purpose'.
“What are you going to do when this is all over? You are a noble lady, but if your reputation gets tarnished because of a guy like me...”
The shepherd, who was rumored to be Ariadne's lover, was sitting alone with Ariadne in his hut while waiting for word from Cesare's army.
The shepherd sat on a wooden chair about three feet away from her and quietly looked down.
“Reputation is just a passing fad, and Cesare knows the truth. Cesare will take responsibility. I have nothing to worry about.”
He nodded his head.
“That’s right. Once this is over..."
“That being said, why did you volunteer for this job?”
Ariadne had to endure all this humiliation because she was destined to become Queen.
She looked at the shepherd, who was too loyal and uninterested in luxuries to have been persuaded by gold coins and asked.
“...I wanted to change the world.”
"Yes?"
“I was originally from the South. As soon as my hair grew thicker, I ran away from home and came to the capital.”
He calmly told the story of how he was the illegitimate son of a southern knight and had been persecuted by his wife and her children since childhood.
It was a story that Ariadne could completely relate to.
“I understand that they didn’t like the sight of me. Even if I were their older brother, they would have hated me. But.”
Although he had good athletic ability, he could not become a knight.
This was because it was absolutely impossible to find a knight who would knight a squire who had not received the blessing of the Gods.
Although he grew up in that house, he was unable to inherit a single penny of his father's fortune.
He just hoped that his father's wife would feel sorry for him and do him a favor.
He didn't expect much.
But when his father passed away and his mother, who had been forced to become independent from home, became seriously ill with a fever, his father's first wife refused to even pay for the hospital bills, and he was furious.
He spat on his father's wife, who said, "I have no obligation to take care of an old maid who lives outside the house," and left the family home, then moved in with his mother.
After caring for his mother who was suffering from a fever for ten days, he caught the disease himself.
When everything was over, all he had left were his dead mother and his crippled body.
“If you block me from doing anything because I’m an illegitimate child and don’t take care of me at home, what else can I say but to go out and die?”
He blew up in anger.
“They don’t even ask me to eat well and live well. They should let me live like a human being. They don’t even let me help with the farm work in the neighborhood because it would hurt the family’s reputation, and when I actually need help, they ignore me, so I just... Am I not even a human being?”
Sparks flew from his innocent eyes.
“If Count Cesare succeeds, he will open a new world.”
A world where even illegitimate children can have jobs without restrictions. A world where they can inherit as much as they have contributed to the family. A world where there is no fear of making a living.
“If the most honorable person in the country is from the same family as us, wouldn’t he look down on all the hardships we go through?”
Cesare went through all the same things.
Things he couldn't do because he was an illegitimate child. Things she couldn't do because she was an illegitimate child. Days when she had to live quietly as if she was wasting her talents and not having any. Ariadne knew all too well about these things.
The shepherd stroked his right foot, which had lost all its muscle and looked like a block of wood.
“My body has become this rotten piece of shit... I thought there was nothing left for me to do. But, he said he needed someone like me!”
He said with his eyes sparkling.
“If I can help change the world, I will die tomorrow without any regrets!”
The young shepherd who had been shouting that he could contribute to the cause without any personal gain eventually died.
It wasn't the 'tomorrow' he had hoped for, but he couldn't get through the year.
In the confusion immediately following Cesare's coup, Crown Prince Alfonso's forces made a last-ditch effort.
When the Crown Prince's Count Marquez learned that the shepherd and Ariadne were liaisons for the foreign garrison, he belatedly beheaded the shepherd and skinned him, hanging him from a tree in the village, to set an example.
After the coup was successful and things were more or less settled, Ariadne went outside the castle to collect the body and give it a funeral, but she could not hide her shock and fear at the sight of the shepherd's gruesome corpse.
“Why are you so upset? Why, did something really happen with that shepherd boy?”
“...Stop talking nonsense.”
“What, are you crying?”
The prognosis for the survivors was not very good either. Cesare eventually banished Ariadne and took the beautiful Isabella as his Queen.
Ariadne then learned how meaningless individual sacrifice for the greater good is.
The shepherd's house was small and old, but it was a cozy place in its own way.
He had several sheepdogs, even though he limped, and the most beloved of them followed his master almost like a human being.
He shared his dinner of turnip soup with lamb fat while sniffing the dog's fur, nose to nose.
His life was simple, but there was small happiness there.
He is now hanging from a tree, his skin peeled off.
Ariadne took the shepherd's puppy and brought it to the palace, but the dog did not adapt well.
“What is that ugly dog?”
“I want to raise it.”
“There are many small and pretty purebred dogs, so why do you raise such a mongrel in the palace? Don’t you have any intention of joining the social circle?”
A few days later, a palace maid reported that a puppy had run away through an open door.
Ariadne doubted whether he had really run away, but there was nothing she could do.
“...Okay.”
The shepherd at that time was dead. The puppy was gone too. There was nothing more that could be done at that time.
“Please let me go!”
But the Greta in front of her is still alive.
“Greta, I appreciate your consideration. But not everyone dies from the Black Death, right?”
One in ten miraculously survives.
“We can find a way to spread the Black Death among the Gallico army. There is no need for you to go.”
It's a damn lie. Ariadne has been trying to spread the Black Death to the Gallic army for the past few days. The army is constantly on the move.
It was difficult to think of a way to introduce the pathogen into a moving army other than through people.
The Gallico Army's movements were extremely secret, mainly through open spaces, and they moved very carefully to avoid infectious diseases, so whether they sold supplies or leaked confidential information, they had no choice but to go through people.
“...I know that it is most certain for a person to leave, and you know that too. Why are you being so kind to me?”
Ariadne was not kind to Greta.
She didn't want to have the weight of Greta's blood on her hands. She remembered the gruesome corpse of the shepherd. She didn't want the same thing to happen again because of her.
“Miss, if we don’t defeat those guys, there’s no next year for us.”
Greta persuaded Ariadne.
“Let’s say this year’s harvest was a failure. If those guys keep ravaging the fields, we won’t be able to plant next year. I know you have plenty of grain, young lady. But it’s not endless. Will you be able to feed all the Etruscans next year?”
Greta continued, leaving Ariadne speechless.
“People like us honestly don’t care whether the King turns into a Gallican or not.”
Ariadne shuddered at the sound. The invasion of Gallico. Yes, Alfonso. Alfonso's crown. The crown she had sworn to protect in this life.
“But if those guys come to San Carlo, won’t they burn it, loot it, and cause chaos?”
Greta lived in a relief center and became close to foreigners who had fled the Moorish Empire. She heard about the horrors of the war refugees.
“Then who will die first? Who will shed the most blood? They will kill all the men, and rape and kill the women.”
“...But, you? If you die, it won’t matter to you.”
The sack of the capital would have already happened after Greta's death.
“Oh, Miss. Why are people so withdrawn?”
Greta raised her voice.
“I said I’d go! When that happens, close your eyes tightly and eat the cake I give you! Do you think I’d mess up something?”
Just looking at the way she's yelling at Ariadne like this, Ariadne can tell she's not an ordinary person.
Greta was never the type of person to mess things up by being flustered.
“Do I look ugly?”
Ariadne shook her head. Greta opened her eyes and said.
It was half a joke, half a serious statement. Greta wanted to reach the greatness she could not reach while alive, even if it meant dying.
Ariadne lived long enough to learn how futile it is to sacrifice one's life in the pursuit of greatness.
But she closed her eyes to the sweet temptation and the insistence of the party.
“Stop making such a gloomy face. If you feel sorry, why don’t you give a round of applause to Saint Greta of San Carlo?”
Ariadne just laughed.
“Hey, applause too.”
When the girl on the first floor clapped her hands as instructed despite the cold wind, Greta on the second floor burst into laughter.
“Hey, country girl Greta has made it big. She’s even getting applause from a noble lady.”
“I’m not a noblewoman?”
“It’s similar. Miss, this is not a situation where you can vomit on me, so please stay quiet.”
Greta chuckled, her voice cracking. A cold breeze blew through her, making her sniffle a little.
“Young lady, please send me a carriage. I have to leave by tomorrow at the latest.”
She must meet the Gallico Army before the disease becomes fully developed before the lymph nodes become swollen and the hands and feet turn black.
Just after Ariadne met Cesare and received information about the location of Gallico's troops and the right of passage through the gates, a girl wearing a tattered shawl and a hooded cape emerged from the north gate of San Carlo. It was Greta.
She slung a sack of grain over each side of a donkey and headed north at a brisk pace.
The grain inside the grain sack looked clean on the outside, but it was actually soaked in water mixed with the feces of plague patients and then dried with the patients' bed sheets and towels used to wipe away their secretions.
According to ancient texts, some types of the Black Death bacillus could only be transmitted through an animal bite, but the type that had recently arrived in the Etruscan kingdom had a slightly lower mortality rate and was transmitted through the coughs or bodily fluids of patients.
If you're lucky, this grain will be cooked undercooked and will kill all the soldiers who eat it. If you're unlucky, it will start with the cooks and spread.
'If we continue like this... If we go straight north, the Gallico Army will be within two hours...'
They too were having trouble getting supplies. They would not just leave a young girl carrying grain behind.
As expected, after a little over an hour, Greta heard a foreign language shr couldn't understand.
“Squad Leader! Grain sacks!”
Greta instinctively knew: Here they come.
The sound of horse hooves was coming closer.
Greta knelt down in the direction of the sound of hooves, holding the donkey's reins. A dozen mounted cavalrymen surrounded her.
“Please save me! Please spare my life!”
Life is okay. Today is your Memorial Day.
“Oh my, your fiancée is here.”
The shepherd boy, or rather the young man, outside the castle was an innocent man.
No matter what he appeared to others, he treated her with respect when they were alone together.
“You’ve made a big decision.”
“No. It’s the same for both of us.”
In her previous life, Count Cesare needed a messenger who could freely travel in and out of the Castel San Carlo without being detected in order to prepare a coup.
His men were closely watched by Crown Prince Alfonso's men.
In the end, the one he chose was his fiancée.
Ariadne went out the city gate every evening, pretending to have an affair with a shepherd outside the castle.
She pretended to be cautious, put on a thick robe, and went out while looking around, but in fact, she was carrying around things that anyone would want to give to their lover, showing off her 'purpose'.
“What are you going to do when this is all over? You are a noble lady, but if your reputation gets tarnished because of a guy like me...”
The shepherd, who was rumored to be Ariadne's lover, was sitting alone with Ariadne in his hut while waiting for word from Cesare's army.
The shepherd sat on a wooden chair about three feet away from her and quietly looked down.
“Reputation is just a passing fad, and Cesare knows the truth. Cesare will take responsibility. I have nothing to worry about.”
He nodded his head.
“That’s right. Once this is over..."
“That being said, why did you volunteer for this job?”
Ariadne had to endure all this humiliation because she was destined to become Queen.
She looked at the shepherd, who was too loyal and uninterested in luxuries to have been persuaded by gold coins and asked.
“...I wanted to change the world.”
"Yes?"
“I was originally from the South. As soon as my hair grew thicker, I ran away from home and came to the capital.”
He calmly told the story of how he was the illegitimate son of a southern knight and had been persecuted by his wife and her children since childhood.
It was a story that Ariadne could completely relate to.
“I understand that they didn’t like the sight of me. Even if I were their older brother, they would have hated me. But.”
Although he had good athletic ability, he could not become a knight.
This was because it was absolutely impossible to find a knight who would knight a squire who had not received the blessing of the Gods.
Although he grew up in that house, he was unable to inherit a single penny of his father's fortune.
He just hoped that his father's wife would feel sorry for him and do him a favor.
He didn't expect much.
But when his father passed away and his mother, who had been forced to become independent from home, became seriously ill with a fever, his father's first wife refused to even pay for the hospital bills, and he was furious.
He spat on his father's wife, who said, "I have no obligation to take care of an old maid who lives outside the house," and left the family home, then moved in with his mother.
After caring for his mother who was suffering from a fever for ten days, he caught the disease himself.
When everything was over, all he had left were his dead mother and his crippled body.
“If you block me from doing anything because I’m an illegitimate child and don’t take care of me at home, what else can I say but to go out and die?”
He blew up in anger.
“They don’t even ask me to eat well and live well. They should let me live like a human being. They don’t even let me help with the farm work in the neighborhood because it would hurt the family’s reputation, and when I actually need help, they ignore me, so I just... Am I not even a human being?”
Sparks flew from his innocent eyes.
“If Count Cesare succeeds, he will open a new world.”
A world where even illegitimate children can have jobs without restrictions. A world where they can inherit as much as they have contributed to the family. A world where there is no fear of making a living.
“If the most honorable person in the country is from the same family as us, wouldn’t he look down on all the hardships we go through?”
Cesare went through all the same things.
Things he couldn't do because he was an illegitimate child. Things she couldn't do because she was an illegitimate child. Days when she had to live quietly as if she was wasting her talents and not having any. Ariadne knew all too well about these things.
The shepherd stroked his right foot, which had lost all its muscle and looked like a block of wood.
“My body has become this rotten piece of shit... I thought there was nothing left for me to do. But, he said he needed someone like me!”
He said with his eyes sparkling.
“If I can help change the world, I will die tomorrow without any regrets!”
The young shepherd who had been shouting that he could contribute to the cause without any personal gain eventually died.
It wasn't the 'tomorrow' he had hoped for, but he couldn't get through the year.
In the confusion immediately following Cesare's coup, Crown Prince Alfonso's forces made a last-ditch effort.
When the Crown Prince's Count Marquez learned that the shepherd and Ariadne were liaisons for the foreign garrison, he belatedly beheaded the shepherd and skinned him, hanging him from a tree in the village, to set an example.
After the coup was successful and things were more or less settled, Ariadne went outside the castle to collect the body and give it a funeral, but she could not hide her shock and fear at the sight of the shepherd's gruesome corpse.
“Why are you so upset? Why, did something really happen with that shepherd boy?”
“...Stop talking nonsense.”
“What, are you crying?”
The prognosis for the survivors was not very good either. Cesare eventually banished Ariadne and took the beautiful Isabella as his Queen.
Ariadne then learned how meaningless individual sacrifice for the greater good is.
The shepherd's house was small and old, but it was a cozy place in its own way.
He had several sheepdogs, even though he limped, and the most beloved of them followed his master almost like a human being.
He shared his dinner of turnip soup with lamb fat while sniffing the dog's fur, nose to nose.
His life was simple, but there was small happiness there.
He is now hanging from a tree, his skin peeled off.
Ariadne took the shepherd's puppy and brought it to the palace, but the dog did not adapt well.
“What is that ugly dog?”
“I want to raise it.”
“There are many small and pretty purebred dogs, so why do you raise such a mongrel in the palace? Don’t you have any intention of joining the social circle?”
A few days later, a palace maid reported that a puppy had run away through an open door.
Ariadne doubted whether he had really run away, but there was nothing she could do.
“...Okay.”
The shepherd at that time was dead. The puppy was gone too. There was nothing more that could be done at that time.
“Please let me go!”
But the Greta in front of her is still alive.
“Greta, I appreciate your consideration. But not everyone dies from the Black Death, right?”
One in ten miraculously survives.
“We can find a way to spread the Black Death among the Gallico army. There is no need for you to go.”
It's a damn lie. Ariadne has been trying to spread the Black Death to the Gallic army for the past few days. The army is constantly on the move.
It was difficult to think of a way to introduce the pathogen into a moving army other than through people.
The Gallico Army's movements were extremely secret, mainly through open spaces, and they moved very carefully to avoid infectious diseases, so whether they sold supplies or leaked confidential information, they had no choice but to go through people.
“...I know that it is most certain for a person to leave, and you know that too. Why are you being so kind to me?”
Ariadne was not kind to Greta.
She didn't want to have the weight of Greta's blood on her hands. She remembered the gruesome corpse of the shepherd. She didn't want the same thing to happen again because of her.
“Miss, if we don’t defeat those guys, there’s no next year for us.”
Greta persuaded Ariadne.
“Let’s say this year’s harvest was a failure. If those guys keep ravaging the fields, we won’t be able to plant next year. I know you have plenty of grain, young lady. But it’s not endless. Will you be able to feed all the Etruscans next year?”
Greta continued, leaving Ariadne speechless.
“People like us honestly don’t care whether the King turns into a Gallican or not.”
Ariadne shuddered at the sound. The invasion of Gallico. Yes, Alfonso. Alfonso's crown. The crown she had sworn to protect in this life.
“But if those guys come to San Carlo, won’t they burn it, loot it, and cause chaos?”
Greta lived in a relief center and became close to foreigners who had fled the Moorish Empire. She heard about the horrors of the war refugees.
“Then who will die first? Who will shed the most blood? They will kill all the men, and rape and kill the women.”
“...But, you? If you die, it won’t matter to you.”
The sack of the capital would have already happened after Greta's death.
“Oh, Miss. Why are people so withdrawn?”
Greta raised her voice.
“I said I’d go! When that happens, close your eyes tightly and eat the cake I give you! Do you think I’d mess up something?”
Just looking at the way she's yelling at Ariadne like this, Ariadne can tell she's not an ordinary person.
Greta was never the type of person to mess things up by being flustered.
“Do I look ugly?”
Ariadne shook her head. Greta opened her eyes and said.
“If you're sorry for me, spread my name far and wide. It's because of Greta's sacrifice that we can eat well and live well. Build a cathedral in my name, and yes, it would be nice to be in the history books! Can't we have a saint consecrated? St. Greta of San Carlo?”
Ariadne lived long enough to learn how futile it is to sacrifice one's life in the pursuit of greatness.
But she closed her eyes to the sweet temptation and the insistence of the party.
“Stop making such a gloomy face. If you feel sorry, why don’t you give a round of applause to Saint Greta of San Carlo?”
Ariadne just laughed.
“Hey, applause too.”
When the girl on the first floor clapped her hands as instructed despite the cold wind, Greta on the second floor burst into laughter.
“Hey, country girl Greta has made it big. She’s even getting applause from a noble lady.”
“I’m not a noblewoman?”
“It’s similar. Miss, this is not a situation where you can vomit on me, so please stay quiet.”
Greta chuckled, her voice cracking. A cold breeze blew through her, making her sniffle a little.
“Young lady, please send me a carriage. I have to leave by tomorrow at the latest.”
She must meet the Gallico Army before the disease becomes fully developed before the lymph nodes become swollen and the hands and feet turn black.
***
Just after Ariadne met Cesare and received information about the location of Gallico's troops and the right of passage through the gates, a girl wearing a tattered shawl and a hooded cape emerged from the north gate of San Carlo. It was Greta.
She slung a sack of grain over each side of a donkey and headed north at a brisk pace.
The grain inside the grain sack looked clean on the outside, but it was actually soaked in water mixed with the feces of plague patients and then dried with the patients' bed sheets and towels used to wipe away their secretions.
According to ancient texts, some types of the Black Death bacillus could only be transmitted through an animal bite, but the type that had recently arrived in the Etruscan kingdom had a slightly lower mortality rate and was transmitted through the coughs or bodily fluids of patients.
If you're lucky, this grain will be cooked undercooked and will kill all the soldiers who eat it. If you're unlucky, it will start with the cooks and spread.
'If we continue like this... If we go straight north, the Gallico Army will be within two hours...'
They too were having trouble getting supplies. They would not just leave a young girl carrying grain behind.
As expected, after a little over an hour, Greta heard a foreign language shr couldn't understand.
“Squad Leader! Grain sacks!”
Greta instinctively knew: Here they come.
The sound of horse hooves was coming closer.
Greta knelt down in the direction of the sound of hooves, holding the donkey's reins. A dozen mounted cavalrymen surrounded her.
“Please save me! Please spare my life!”
Life is okay. Today is your Memorial Day.
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